Nigeria Equity Watch | 9 July 2015 : Market still Bearish… ASI sheds 82bps

Lagos, Nigeria (Capital Markets in Africa) — Sell-offs in the Nigerian Equities market moderated today causing the broader index to close at 31,768.23pts after dropping 82bps. Following the trend, market capitalisation also dipped N90.0bn to N10.8tn. The decline in index was due to the losses sustained in Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods blue chips — FORTE OIL (-5.0%) and GUINNESS (5.0%) respectively. Conversely, market activities measured by the volume and value of shares traded advanced 14.5% (222.1m units) and 45.6%( N4.3bn).

All Sectors on a Nosedive
There was a bear run among all sector indices. The Oil & Gas and Consumer Goods indices led the sector losers declining by 143bps and 135bps respectively as FORTE OIL and GUINNESS shed 5.0% each. The Banking index dipped 1.3% as Stanbic IBTC led the release of the Nigerian banks’ H1:2015 results today with a top and bottom line growth of 10.7% and -40.1% respectively as well as interim dividend declaration of 90 kobo (yield: 3.6%). The Industrial Goods index followed with a decline of 0.7%. After the four day gain in the Insurance sector, the index fell 0.3%.

Investor Sentiments still Down
Market breadth stayed negative to berth at 0.5x (16 advancers vs 33 decliners). Topping the gainers’ list were IKEJA HOTEL (+7.0%), NAHCO (4.4%) and CAVERTON (4.3%) while COSTAIN, FLOUR MILL and GUINNESS fell the most with 5.0% each. Given the continuous decline in value stocks, investors are advised to take advantage of the cheap valuations in these stocks to reap returns in the long term while they await other H1:2015 earnings results.

Source: Afrinvest (West Africa) Limited Research Team